A Squarespace Web Designer’s take on AI
So you’re setting out to build a website for your solopreneur venture, or small heart based business… and you’re quickly realizing that this might take a bit more thought and effort than you initially assumed. You’ve gone through the process of researching platforms, how to get your domain name, how to set up business email account… and a ton of other stuff… and now you’re in the Squarespace(the obvious choice) website editor, staring at a blank canvas, realizing that you don’t know what in the hell you should put on your homepage. Have no fear, in this blog post I will give you an overview of what a great homepage will do for your Squarespace website and business, as well as the key sections that you will want to include on it, and how to best write the copy for those sections.
The Purpose of Your Home Page
The homepage of your Squarespace website is your chance to give your visitors a complete but brief overview of your business and the value that you provide to your clients/ students/ customers… it should also give them reasons to trust you enough to take your call to action. When someone lands here, they need to immediately know what it is you do, who you serve, why they should pick you and then be given a call to action to follow. Then, they are going to want to find answers to their most important questions easily without much effort. The more effort someone has to make to find what they are looking for, the more likely they are going to bounce right back to Google and forget you even exist.
Your homepage should answer questions like “Can this business help me?” “What services do they offer?” “how do I know I can trust them?” and “what should I do next?”.
When people are scrolling through this page, they are usually going to be looking for the information that is most relevant to them, so it is best to break the homepage up into easily digestible sections of information with clear and direct headlines.
Below, I’m going to break down what I think are the most important sections to include on your homepage and how to write them. The sections I’m going to cover are:
Hero, Benefits, About, Services, Social Proof
Of course, you may have more or less sections that you want on your homepage, or you may want to order the sections a little different than I suggest. That’s fine! This is just a guide to help you get started.
A key principle to remember when designing not just your homepage, but your whole website is this: Websites are not just supposed to be informational. To be an effective sales machine for your business it needs to also, and more importantly, be directional. This means that the website is designed in such a way to actively lead the visitor through all the information they need to see in order to be ready to hit that primary Call To Action(CTA) and take the first step in becoming a paying client, customer or student with your business.
With this in mind, we can design the homepage to act as a doorway to the other important parts of your website, while offering opportunities at every turn to take that CTA. So, let's get into it.
Calls To Action and Copywriting tips
First, let’s talk a little bit about CTAs. A good CTA is short, descriptive and concise. It tells the user exactly what to expect to happen after they follow it and it gets them to connect with your business in the way that you most want them to.
Primary CTAs: Your website should have one single primary CTA for your users to follow. This is the thing that will get them taking the next step to becoming a customer. Examples are “Book a discovery call” “Get a free trial” “See our Class Schedule” etc. Repeat this CTA as a punctuation mark throughout your website, after each chunk of information, and at the bottom of each page. This way, the moment they are ready to hit it, they don’t have to go looking for it, it’s always right there in front of them.
Secondary CTAs: These are even smaller steps that a visitor may want to take before they feel ready to take the primary CTA. Examples would be “Learn more” “See my Services” “Download this freebie” etc. Place these where they are relevant to the bigger story being told, such that they move the user to the next part of your website, or customer journey(like joining a mailing list) as they prepare to click the primary CTA.
And a couple of quick tips about copywriting. People don’t like reading huge walls of text on websites. Anything more than a few sentences in a paragraph and people are going to skip right by it. Also, center aligned text longer than 3-4 lines? Don’t you dare. A paragraph of center-aligned text is an eye strain ain’t nobody got time for.
Be short, simple, direct and clear. Especially on the home page. People will be scanning this page to find the information most relevant to them, and once they do then you can give them a chance to go to another page to read more.
Use clear, descriptive headlines so they will know when they’ve found what they want, and then short and to the point body text so they can digest it quickly and decide if they want to go read the full information.
Alright, alright let's get on with it…
Hero Section
This is the most important section of your homepage, and perhaps your entire website. It’s your first opportunity to make sure your visitors know what you do, who you serve and what the next step to take in becoming your client is. You have about 3-8 seconds to transmit this information, connect emotionally, hook (the right) people in, and give them an action to take.
Do this with a large, easy to read and digest headline that describes what you do, or the results you provide in 1 or 2 sentences max. Then, perhaps another couple lines of copy to say how you are different or what location you serve. Next, give them a call to action.
Example:
I help growth-oriented couples develop greater connection, powerful communication and deeper intimacy through Tantric Sex Coaching
>>> Book a Clarity Call
Example:
Yoga classes for people fueled by fire
Turning up the heat in Charlotte, NC
CTA: See Class Schedule
Make sure you utilize your website’s primary keywords in this headline, and choose the H1 tag to write it in. Search engines place a lot of emphasis on the contents of the H1 tag to rank your website in relevant search queries.
Banner Image: Along with a bangin’ headline, you will want to have a high-resolution, professionally captured photograph or graphic as the background for this section. The photo should feature either you, or your students participating in the services that you offer… OR a depiction of someone experiencing some sort of ‘success’ that they would have in working with you or taking your classes. If you can, invest in a professional photoshoot and try to avoid stock photos as much as possible. I know, sometimes you have to use em… if so you can find some excellent copyright free photography on sites like unsplash.com and pexels.com.
About
Depending on what kind of business you have, you may want to follow the hero section directly with your About section. This could be some copy that builds on what was said in the first section and offers a little more detail and context about your business, and where you serve. You could include how many years you’ve been in practice/ business, what specific modalities you offer, WHY you do what you do, what kind of results you’re committed to getting for your clients, or something like your mission / brand statement. Whatever you choose to put here, keep it brief, to the point and engaging to read. Then, include a secondary CTA that invites the user to more information and your full About Me/Us page.
Protip: Including high quality photography and graphics throughout your website, on each section of your homepage, is a great way to increase a person’s sense of connection to your brand, and create a compelling story that keeps visitors on your page. Include at least one photo or some kind of graphic in most sections of your homepage. If not, get creative with the fonts and colors to make it visually appealing and engaging to read.
Benefits
Somewhere near the beginning of the homepage, offer your visitors a list of benefits that working with you provides them. If you work 1 on 1 with people, maybe list some of the challenges and problems that you help them solve and offer examples of what the other side of that could look like. Or if you offer classes, what’s special about them? What do you do that other businesses like yours don’t do? How do you meet your clients, what do you bring to the table that they might not even know they need?
Your ‘Benefits’ section can look any kind of way, but the gist is that it needs to make it really clear that you can help your visitors with the specific issues they are experiencing.
If you offer a specific modality, name the issues that modality helps with, but then also find a way to show why working with you is special or unique. If you’re a yoga studio, this might just look like naming your geographical location, and saying something about the unique approach your studio offers to all of your students. Is there a certain demographic that you serve? Etc.
This can be a little tricky and take some work and re-work to really dial in, but once you have it, your ideal clients will know immediately that you are the one for them.
Services
Offer an overview of 1-3 of your most popular services, or perhaps the ones that you most want to promote. Give a clear headline for each, a SUPER brief description (1-2 sentences) and a call to action aka “Learn More” or “Book Now” (or both)
If you offer classes, offer 3 of your most popular class types here, the ones that most people are going to be looking for.
This gives your visitors a quick glance at what you do and then the option to either go learn more, or if they are ready, jump on your schedule immediately.
Social Proof
Providing some sort of social proof is crucial to building trust with your website’s visitors. If you offer 1 on 1 services, client testimonials go a long way. If you can include a headshot of that client, even better. When requesting testimonials from your clients it is a good idea to ask them for very specific feedback. When the transformation that your clients have experienced is clearly described in their testimonial, this not only shows that other people have trusted you and benefitted from working with you, but it also speaks directly to your visitors who are experiencing similar problems and shows that you’ve helped other people solve those exact problems in the past.
Other forms of social proof that you can offer can be a list or organizations (with their logos for visual engagement!) that your business has partnered with, accreditations that you may have earned, how many years you’ve been serving your community, how many people you’ve helped… etc… there’s many ways to offer trust-building social proof. Pick one or two and include them on your homepage.
Take my money!
Jeeze, you only just read this article and I already want to buy your services. Look, I don’t know how magic works, okay? It just is, don’t question it.
Hopefully you’ve found this to be helpful and you’re feeling much more confident about building out the homepage of your website, and perhaps have gleamed some insight on how to structure the rest of your Squarespace website.
